This is a colourful advertisement for a Purim fancy dress ball to be held on Tuesday, March 15, 1881. At the bottom of the image is a ribbon with the inscription: “In Aid of the Building Fund of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum society.” The picture is in the style of the Commedia dell’arte showing the characteristic clowns and masks. In the centre of the image is a woman wearing decorative oriental clothing, signifying perhaps a queen or even Queen Esther from the Purim story. She is holding a sack of coins and is dropping several of them into the lap of a small child. The other children are surrounding her, perhaps waiting their turn to receive coins. These are presumably the children who received assistance from this philanthropic society. On the right is a clown who is also giving a coin to the children.
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The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York (HOA) - The Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York (HOA), was a home for Jewish orphans and children whose parents could not support them, which was opened in New York City in 1860 in a building rented by the Hebrew Benevolent Society. In the ensuing years many more children needed assistance. This period coincided with the major waves of pogroms taking place in the Pale of Settlement, which resulted in the immigration of many Jewish refugees to Western Europe and the United States. This is probably the reason for the organisation’s appeal to the public to support their building fund. A large orphanage for over 1,500 children was opened three years later in Upper Manhattan. Between 1860 and 1919, more than 13,500 children were admitted to the home, which finally closed in 1941.